PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has refused to quash the criminal proceedings against a man, who is accused of posting objectionable comment on facebook against Lord Shiva observing that 'offences that have tendency to promote hatred between classes of people or communities have to be put down with heavy hands'.
Dismissing a petition filed by one Asif of Aligarh district, Justice JJ Munir further observed, “These offences cannot be permitted to flourish in society by adopting a soft-pedalling approach at the cost of widespread damage to the community.”
The allegation against the applicant was that he had posted objectionable comments on his facebook account regarding Lord Shiva, using objectionable language, which hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindu community. It was alleged that by those comments, he had insulted the religious sentiments of the Hindu community.
After investigation, the police submitted a chargesheet against the applicant on the basis of material collected. Thereafter, the Judicial Magistrate-II, Aligarh took cognizance of the offence and issued summons to the applicant on January 3, 2023. Aggrieved over it, the applicant challenged the summoning order and also the resultant proceedings through the present application filed under section 482 (inherent powers of high court) of criminal procedure code (CrPC).
During the court proceedings, the counsel for the applicant said the comments posted on the applicant's Facebook were merely forwards by another person and that are not the applicant's authorship.
Rejecting the plea, the court said: “If there is a comment which has the tendency to promote enmity between different groups on the ground of religion, then posting it on one's facebook would certainly constitute an offence. The words employed in the post clearly are ones made with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of a community or a class of citizens of the country. If the said comments have been endorsed by the applicant by posting them on his facebook, it does not matter whether he is the author or the exponent of the comments.”
Dismissing the plea, the court in its order dated April 6 said: “In the opinion of this court, there is absolutely no good ground to quash the proceedings in exercise of powers under section 482 of CrPC. Hence, this application is accordingly dismissed.”
